ultimatepopculturefandomcom-20200216-history
Kilobyte
The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The International System of Units (SI) defines the prefix kilo as 1000 (103); per this definition, one kilobyte is 1000 bytes.International Standard IEC 80000-13 Quantities and Units – Part 13: Information science and technology, International Electrotechnical Commission (2008). The internationally recommended unit symbol for the kilobyte is kB. In some areas of information technology, particularly in reference to digital memory capacity, kilobyte instead denotes 1024 (210) bytes. This arises from the powers-of-two sizing common to memory circuit design. In this context, the symbols K''' and '''KB are often used. Definitions and usage 1000 bytes In the International System of Units (SI) the prefix kilo means 1000 (103); therefore, one kilobyte is 1000 bytes. The unit symbol is kB. This is the definition recommended by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).Prefixes for Binary Multiples — The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty This definition, and the related definitions of the prefixes mega ( ), giga ( ), etc., are most commonly used for data transfer rates in computer networks, internal bus, hard drive and flash media transfer speeds, and for the capacities of most storage media, particularly hard drives,1977 Disk/Trend Report Rigid Disk Drives, published June 1977 flash-based storage,SanDisk USB Flash Drive "Note: 1 megabyte (MB) = 1 million bytes; 1 gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes." and DVDs. It is also consistent with the other uses of the SI prefixes in computing, such as CPU clock speeds or measures of performance. The IEC 80000-13 standard uses the term 'byte' to mean eight bits (1 B = 8 bit). Therefore, 1 kB = 8000 bit. One thousand kilobytes (1000 kB) is equal to one megabyte (1 MB), where 1 MB is one million bytes. 1024 bytes The kilobyte has traditionally been used to refer to 1024 bytes (210 B), a usage still common.Kilobyte – Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Merriam-webster.com (2010-08-13). Retrieved on 2011-01-07.Kilobyte | Define Kilobyte at Dictionary.com. Dictionary.reference.com (1995-09-29). Retrieved on 2011-01-07.Definition of kilobyte from Oxford Dictionaries Online. Askoxford.com. Retrieved on 2011-01-07. The usage of the metric prefix kilo for binary multiples arose as a convenience, because 1000 approximates 1024. The binary interpretation of metric prefixes is still prominently used by the Microsoft Windows operating system, which is used on 90% of the world's personal computers. They are also used for random-access memory capacities, such as main memory and CPU cache sizes, due to the binary addressing of memory. The binary representation of 1024 bytes typically uses the symbol KB, with an uppercase letter K''. The ''B is often omitted in informal use. For example, a processor with 65,536 bytes of cache memory might be said to have "64K" of cache. In this convention, one thousand and twenty-four kilobytes (1024 KB) is equal to one megabyte (1 MB), where 1 MB is 10242 bytes. Kibibyte In December 1998, the IEC addressed such multiple usages and definitions by creating prefixes such as kibi, mebi, gibi, etc., to unambiguously denote powers of 1024. "In December 1998 the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) ... approved as an IEC International Standard names and symbols for prefixes for binary multiples for use in the fields of data processing and data transmission." Thus the kibibyte, symbol KiB, represents 210 = 1024 bytes. These prefixes are now part of the International System of Quantities. The IEC further specified that the kilobyte should only be used to refer to 1000 bytes. In practice, kilobyte is still commonly used to refer to 1024 bytes. One thousand and twenty-four kibibytes (1024 KiB) is equal to one mebibyte (1 MiB), where 1 MiB is 10242 bytes. Examples * The Shugart SA-400 5 -inch floppy disk (1976) held 109,375 bytes unformatted, and was advertised as 110 Kbyte, using the 1000 convention.http://www.swtpc.com/mholley/SA400/SA400_Datasheet.pdf Likewise, the 8-inch DEC RX01 floppy (1975) held 256,256 bytes formatted, and was advertised as 256k.http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/disc/rx01/EK-RX01-MM-002_maint_Dec76.pdf On the other hand, the Tandon 5 -inch DD floppy format (1978) held 368,640 (which is 360×1024) bytes, but was advertised as 360 KB, following the 1024 convention. * On modern systems, all versions of Microsoft Windows including the newest (as of 2015) Windows 10 divide by 1024 and represent a 65,536-byte file as 64 KB. Conversely, Mac OS X Snow Leopard and newer represent this as 66 kB, rounding to the nearest 1000 bytes. File sizes are reported with decimal prefixes. *The binary interpretation is still used in marketing and billing by some telecommunication companies, such as Vodafone, AT&T, Orange and Telstra. See also * History of the floppy disk * Binary prefix * Timeline of binary prefixes * * * Notes References * Category:Units of information